Friday, September 28, 2007

I've FINALLY finished my White on White CQ Block that I had started almost a year ago for the Encrusted CQ online class. I added some beads to the large SRE motif and to the vines on the left as well as added a small SRE motif to left of those. I added some glass pearls to the little motif as well as a tiny clear Swarovski crystal butterfly. Then I finished up the tail of the bow!

As I was looking back on my old posts I realized I totally forgot about my tatted fern I was going to use on the little SRE motif!!! Oops! I guess I should have looked before I went ahead and finished the block today! The tatted fern would have looked so nice! I guess that's what I get for putting it off and picking it back up a couple of months later.

I'm going to make a few more blocks and create a wall hanging to coordinate with my bedspread I am making, but for now I decided to tack it up to the wall in my bedroom. Not as elegant as it will be when it's a finished wall hanging, but hey it's better than being tucked away in a drawer. Plus maybe it'll give me inspiration to work harder on my bedspread?

Thursday, September 27, 2007

Well here it is! I think I did pretty good! Now I know I can do curves if I want to! I usually don't like to do curves in my piecing. I enjoy the straight lines radiating look, and then I usually add curved embellishments and SRE motifs. Since I won't be doing as much SRE because this is a bedspread I think this is a nice alternative. Jill shared with me where she bought the fabric and I couldn't resist but to buy a yard to add to the bedspread and maybe make a throw pillow or two. The price per yard seemed a little high at first but when I saw that it's for extra wide 118" I figured it would be worth it after all. It's like buying 2 yards in normal sizes.

The last few weeks I've been sewing down the lace on my blocks, and figured an updated photo would be nice! I've found that I enjoy the hand stitching of sewing down the lace. It's really soothing and it's nice to do it when chatting with a friend too. I also feel like putting the lace on the block gives me a better feel for the block and how I'm going to embellish it.Even though I'm numbering the blocks I probably won't sew them together in this order, mostly the numbers are so I know how many I've done! LOL

Wednesday, September 26, 2007

Yesterday I started piecing block 4 and as you can see I just need to baste the edges and finish appliqueing the fabric that has the raised ribbon motif down. I've never done that before so it should be interesting...LOL! I hope it turns out good, the good thing is if it doesn't hand sewing is pretty easy to take out! So today I'm going to get that tackled.

I used 2 pieces of the fabric Jill sent me, one is on the lower right and the other is the upper right which is the raised ribbon motif fabric. The reason I'm going to applique it on is so that I get the full motif, I didn't want to cut it. So I'm placing it so it's just right on the block.

Monday, September 24, 2007

Here is Bonnie's block all finished! I love it so much! There were moments when I wasn't sure if my SRE motifs were going to turn out nice, and then they just came together! I made them more of an open airy feeling, rather than really tightly done. I felt that made them more on the dainty side since Bonnie loves dainty! The last section to be filled in was the lower right and I felt a seam treatment would have just led the eye right off the block and in a direction that was the opposite from where it should go. SO my solution was to make a light airy motif using the same thread from the left and made feather stitch sprays pointing back towards the block with seed beads to echo the pearls from the left as well. The single sweetheart rose and 3 colonial knots I felt acted as a stopping point so the eye didn't go off the edge but stop there and go back along the feather stitching.I have a cute story to tell about my friend Wendy's daughter Bekah. I took the block with me to church (I had it in a plastic baggie for protection) to show Wendy before I send it off and she was holding Bekah who is 3 years old. Bekah is a gardening princess and loves to play outside in the garden in a dress up princess dress. Well as I was showing Wendy the block, Bekah was ooo-ing over the block too and suddenly pointed to the center and said "diamond"! I was so surprised! WOW 3yrs and knows a diamond! Then she saw the flowers and said "ooo flowers" then saw the dragonflies and said "BUGS!" after that she noticed the pearls too. It was so sweet! And from Bekah's reaction I knew I had succeeded with the design plan I had! #1 was the diamond as focal, #2 was SRE motifs, #3 points of interest with bugs, pearls and beads.Click Here to see all the Summer Breeze Blocks

Friday, September 21, 2007

My first Thank You goes to Tracy who generously offered to send me some extra goodies she had so that I can embellish my CQ Bedspread, and other CQ projects! There is ribbons, trims, threads, bits of beaded trim, venice lace, and vintage lace too! Thank you Tracy!

The second Thank You goes to Jill who offered to send me a squishie of fabrics and lace for my CQ Bedspread! And wow what a squishie! Jill shared with me some of the most exquisite fabrics and lace! So many textures! This really broadens my fabric selection on the quilt! I was just floored when I saw what she sent!

She even included a few other colors just because.

This large piece of lace is from an antique handmade tablecloth that was given to her mother and passed to her! That is so special, I think I will use it to make a decorative throw pillow.

More lace, vintage lace and another piece of the tablecloth!

And check out that vintage cluny lace, it's so delicate and tiny! I will be using that on the matching non-washable wall hanging.

Thank you SO much to each of you! I really appreciate you both taking the time to send me some treasures!

Thursday, September 13, 2007

Here is block 3 I pieced yesterday! I kind of don't like it as much because I feel the piecing is uneven with the small pieces to the lower left and larger pieces to the upper right, but at the same time I had been wanting to use that piece of gold lace like that for some time and felt this block was the one.

Here's my lace tryout, I felt this circular piece helps the balance of the block more as well as makes a nice frame for something special to be embroidered. It is also a piece that Marie tatted and sent to me!

Wednesday, September 12, 2007

Yesterday I worked on piecing block #2 so here it is! Now for some lace tryouts for this block too. I've already sewn down the lace on block 1, it's now ready for some embroidery.Here is my lace tryouts for block 2! I'm using some of the tatted edging that Marie sent to me! So pretty, I just love the pattern! And a lace applique that Lillian sent to me!

Tuesday, September 11, 2007

I started working on Bonnie's blocks today and the colors are very spicy to me even with the pinks. Since she pieced her block with a 4 sided bit at the center it made a more diamond shape in the block. At first I was going to do all seam treatments but when looking at the block I felt it would end up too square so instead I focused on the diamond in the center and really bringing it out. To me the block is looking like the trendy elegance style, like you see around at Target and such. Bonnie loves dragonflies so I made sure to add those in as a seam treatment. I'm considering adding a running stitch flight path weaving in between them in a fine metallic thread. I'm also planning 2 SRE motifs on both sides of the diamond, one a larger trailing and the other a smaller complimentary design. I'm also considering adding half buttonhole wheels to the right pink and tan seam.

Monday, September 10, 2007

Here is block #1! I'm on my way! This is a perfect example of the color scheme I've chosen.

Here is a little preview from my lace tryouts. I'm really loving how this is turning out! I'm excited and a little overwhelmed with the idea of 120 blocks, LOL, but I just need to take it 1 block at a time and I'll have fun!The challenge with this bedspread will be embellishing in washable ways, it will be gentle cycle of coarse but I usually rely on a lot of Silk Ribbon Embroidery but I'll need to rely more on regular embroidery and lace with touches of beads and buttons. I'm looking forward to this adventure!

Sunday, September 09, 2007

A while back I had posted about some tatting that I saved from becoming trash to be used as a treasure in my crazy quilting instead. Well Marie Smith and her granddaughter Violet saw that blog post and wanted to send me bits of tatting to use in my crazy quilting! Today I was thrilled to receive the package and it's precious contents! Look at this treasure of tatting! It's amazing! The white, cream, and ecru bits and edgings I'll will definitely be adding to my CQ bedspread! And the other bits will also find special spots too!If anyone else wants to send me bits I will gladly accept them and treasure them! Just email me at honeybeesbliss at gmail dot com!

Just look at these elegant motifs and edgings! I just love that edging pattern and I'm going to look into that pattern to make myself!

And check out the wonderful tatted flower with the pearl center!

There is a cute little bunny, a bouquet of violets, a giraffe, a string of fans (that I can see as baskets for silk ribbon embroidered flowers), square motifs that I can see as frames, and a lovely 3D rose!

Cute little "heart" dimpled rings, a tat-person and bird tatted by Violet. (Thank you Violet) Marie tatted up (and improved) my very own heart/leaf pattern and added a stem! I love how she did the stem but I'm not sure how she did it! (Marie says it's a lock stitch chain)I am just so excited to use these treasures in my crazy quilting!

Thursday, September 06, 2007

I'm off to the annual Women of Faith Conference the women in my church go to every year! I'm so excited to go! I love going so much we always have so much fun! I'm so happy that I returned to the area just in time to go this year. Hopefully I'll have a few photos to share when I get back!

I've been considering for sometime to start a long term project of a crazy quilt bedspread but never thought I could realisticly tackle it. Since I just moved and am putting together my home again I thought now would be the time to start it. It will be queen sized and consist of 120 eight inch blocks. I'm planning on embelishing the blocks very simply so that the finished bedspread can be washable if needed. Here are the colors of fabrics I'm planning on using. I love the white on whites, creams and light golds so that's what this will be. I've already pre-ripped 120 twelve inch muslin squares, now they just need to be marked at the 8 inch and 9 inch and I can start piecing. I'm not sure how I'm going to go about doing this, I'd like to try to get it done in a year which would mean 10 blocks a month. If I need to take longer I will though I don't want to wear myself out but it will be a nice WISP (work in slow progress) to work on.

Wednesday, September 05, 2007

WOO HOO we are in housing which is built brand new! I'm currently unpacking and finding a place for everything and getting rid of excess that has accumulated...LOL! It's a great house and has 3 bedrooms! The dining room is extra large and has enough room for the dining table and a nice sitting area which I'm really looking forward to having finished up. The dining room is also where I'll be doing my crazy quilting and so I've stashed my stash in the drawers of the china cabinet and I got a cool trunk at Big Lots that works as storage for the sewing machine etc as well as a cool coffee table for the sitting area when the CQ stuff is tucked away.

Here is another lovely view from the high desert! I just love it when the sun rays shine through the clouds! The desert views are always changing and just stunning...never boring to look at. Sometimes you see lovely shading of blue mountains and other times a lovely ridge line against an amazing colorful sunset, and then there are the gorgeous views with clouds.

Psalm 108:5 -- "Be exalted, O God, above the heavens, and let your glory be over all the earth."

Tuesday, September 04, 2007

It is sharing and caring,giving and forgiving,loving and being loved,walking hand in hand,talking heart to heart,seeing through each other's eyes,laughing together,weeping together,praying together,and always trusting and believingand thanking God for each other...For love that is shared is a beautiful thing-It enriches the soul and makes the heart sing.

Vintage Images Used on my Blog are from a CD I have bought which I have gotten permission to use. Please do not steal! If you like the images be honest and buy your own CD it is worth it in the long run. You can use the CD of images in many different ways. ~~
Victoria Rose Cottage